The way their hair feels is very important to consumers of hair products. Desirable feel characteristics for hair include smoothness, softness, slippery feel when wet, ease of comb (both in the wet and dry states), no static, moisturisation and cleanness.
Compositions which provide improved feel to the hair are well known in the art and include rinse off products such as conditioners, shampoos, shower-gels, lotions and the like. These compositions improve feel characteristics of hair by depositing one or more of a wide variety of benefit agents, such as conditioning agents, onto the hair. However, such compositions can also lead to the hair looking and feeling heavy, greasy, dull and lifeless, due to the presence and/or accumulation of benefit and/or deposition agents on the surface of the hair. The clean feel of the hair can then be restored by removing these agents, for example by use of a so-called cleansing shampoo. However, the hair can then feel difficult to comb, harsh and lacks the benefits bestowed by the benefit agents just removed. In particular, such shampooing can leave the hair in a tangled and generally unmanageable state. Once the hair dries, it is often dry, rough, lustreless, or frizzy due to removal of the hair's natural oils and other conditioning and moisturizing components. The hair can further be left with increased levels of static upon drying, which can interfere with combing and result in a condition commonly referred to as “fly-away hair”, or contribute to an undesirable phenomena of “split ends”, particularly for long hair.
There remains a clear need for hair treatment compositions which are capable of imparting smoothness, moisturisation, ease of comb, etc, whilst also leaving the hair feeling clean, light and airy.